CV NEWS FEED // Multiple speakers at the recent “Catholics for Harris” virtual rally attempted to frame presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s policies as aligned with Catholic principles, urging attendees to see her as a leader grounded in moral values.
After being rescheduled twice over the summer, the rally took place on September 18 and was emceed by Alex Nason.
Nason, a young Democratic operative who has worked for the Irish government and the Arab League, began by reminding attendees that in her time in office, Vice President Harris “advocated for, protected, and saw justice for the oppressed, and least among us, lending a voice to the voiceless.”
As vice president, according to Nason, Harris has been “leading with a moral purpose, and as president she will lead with that same moral purpose.”
As CatholicVote has previously reported, Harris is a staunch supporter abortion-on-demand, has called for taxpayer funding of the procedure, and has a history of attacking pro-life pregnancy centers.
Nason went on to emphasize that Catholics voters are “not defined by a single partisan organization, but by our values, community, faith in each other, and love of country,” he stated, continuing, “We respect our neighbors, and we believe in the dignity of immigrants and all human beings.”
Joe Donnelly, who served as President Biden’s ambassador to the Holy See, shared with attendees his experience witnessing “the special friendship between President Biden and Pope Francis,” two people who “care about” and “respect” each other as two individuals “who work every day to try to make the world a better place.”
“I mention that because Vice President Harris has seen this in action from President Biden every single day,” Donnelly stated, “and Vice President Harris acts in the same exact way that President Biden has,” including, he continued, in “stand[ing] up for the least among us.”
According to Donnelly, in contrast to former president Donald Trump, Harris’s values, fortified by her Baptist faith, are “all Catholic values.”
Donnelly produced a quote from Harris, who reportedly stated that “[her] work is driven by the Bible and God,” and that “She speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves.”
Donnelly contrasted Harris’s values to Trump’s, which, according to Donnelly, are what lead Trump to face the immigration crisis with the thought, “How can we vilify these people?” and, “How can we make the lives of these immigrants more difficult?”
Donnelly shared his personal recommendation for vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, stating that “We both sat next to each other on the veterans committee for a number of years.”
Walz was recently accused of faking parts of his military record, as CatholicVote previously reported. Additionally, veterans who served with Walz accused him of being a “liar” who lacked “loyalty” and “integrity” in his service.
Donnelly stated that Walz is guided by his Lutheran faith, which is why he doesn’t like to brag about the good he does for people in need, in order to not “let one hand know what the other is doing.”
These principles, according to Donnelly, make Walz very similar to Biden, whose Catholic principles cause him to “never [spend] his time talking about” all the good he does.
Instead, what they’ve done and what “we’re trying to do now,” according to Donnelly, “is what we’ve done for years and years and years: To follow the call of Jesus to help make sure that all of his children have the chance to see their hopes and dreams come true.”
The Harris-Walz presidential ticket is the most anti-Catholic ticket in history, CatholicVote reported in August.
Sister Simone Campbell of the Sisters of Social Justice, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden, shared with listeners that it was Biden’s “consistent faith” that motivated him to give her the award for her service to “those in need.”
The question-and-answer segment of the rally was not visible to attendees; only the speakers had access to the questions. Campbell noted that the “big ones” were on “Catholics and abortion.”
“It drives me nuts, drives me nuts!” she said emphatically.
“The fact is, our faith does not require the outlawing of abortions,” she stated. “Our faith teaches us that protecting life is what we’re about, and we also trust each individual to have a well-formed conscience for making decisions,” she stated, “In this case, for her wellbeing.”
Campbell told listeners to “jot down” a quote from Pope Francis reminding the faithful that the lives of the poor, elderly, marginalized, and victims of slavery and human trafficking are all “equally sacred” as the lives of the unborn.
“We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in a world where some revel, spend with abandon, and live only for the latest consumer goods, even as others look on from afar living their entire lives in abject poverty,” Campbell stated.
The next speaker for the rally was Dr. Anthea Butler, Professor of Religion and Chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Religious Studies.
Butler shared with attendees that she was part of the “Catholics for Biden” 2020 campaign, and that some might recognize her because she “appear[s] often on MSNBC” to talk about “threats to democracy.”
Butler emphasized the importance of not “imposing” Catholicism on others.
“Joe Biden is a man of faith, he is faithful to his Catholic tradition, but has not tried to impose that,” she stated. “[W[hat he has done is hold up democracy. I believe that vice president Kamala Harris will do the same thing as a black Baptist….who has been faithful to her tradition.”
Butler said that while attendees may have heard concerns voiced over whether Harris is a true Christian, Butler told attendees that “We all have different faith traditions in our families, but it does not mean that that’s the only thing that we think about, and isn’t the only thing that we do.”
She continued, “So I want to alleviate that fear first of all for you, that she’s not a Christian. [Kamala Harris] is a Christian.”
Butler then asked the question, “Why do we as Catholics want to vote for this Democratic ticket?”
The most important reason right now, according to Butler, is Trump’s statements during the recent presidential debate regarding the Haitian migrant crisis in Springfield, Ohio.
“I want to hammer home very carefully that not only is what’s going on (in) Springfield wrong, but it’s also against a Catholic community,” Butler said. “Many Haitians are Catholics and believe in the Church and all of the tenants of the Catholic Church, whether they are immigrants or citizens.”
“We need to be respectful to that,” Butler continued, “but more importantly, we need to represent the dignity of the human person.”
Trump, according to Butler, is attempting “an othering” of immigrants. “That is not what the Church teaches us,” she stated. “We have to respect human dignity in all forms, and we need to respect life.”
Butler reminded listeners that rather than be single-issue voters, they should also think about “the manner in which gender and identity and all of these other things will be upturned by what would happen if Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz do not get elected in November.”
Harris has recently been criticized for her support for taxpayer-funded gender “transition” surgeries for illegal immigrants and prisoners, as well as pushing trans surgeries on children, as CatholicVote reported.
The final speaker, Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, a self proclaimed “pro choice Catholic,” accused Trump of planning to implement policies elevating corporations at the expense of the middle class.
DeLauro praised Harris’s proposed child tax credit, stating that the current vice president “had made it the flagship of her economic plan.”
According to an August report from the Daily Wire, the idea was likely copied from the Trump-Vance ticket.
